Is anyone actually going to follow the rules from spring?

[Cloudsurfing]

It will have been a year since being allowed to properly see friends and family. Even in summer last year you still had to social distance so seeing family was difficult, and some areas had tighter restrictions throughout. Everyone I know is going to see family and friends from spring, regardless of what restrictions there are. I am too. The government do know that most people won’t stick to it from then, right?

Is anyone on here actually going to not see family at that point? I know Mumsnet seems to be full of people who are happy to isolate for years if need be, but are you actually going to?

@Dongdingdong yes that is five people. Of course not everyone who gets Covid will end up with long term covid and thank goodness for that. Otherwise we would all be pretty screwed!

Symptoms and how much it affects each individual obviously varies and another poster had already mentioned their previous healthy teen who ended up very unwell with it.

Some do, some don't and some show zero symptoms.

My point is that so many still believe it is only a bad flu when it isn't exactly the case at all. Young and previously healthy people are being left with long term issues hence the pain team being redirected to only deal with covid patients.

Simply because you know five people whom were all very lucky doesn't mean it affects all in that manner. People assuming that is one of the causes of infections being so high as they don't see the potential long term effects.

Same as people assuming still it is the elderly whom it is affecting when middle aged are and have been suffering badly with it.

I haven't had time to read the whole thread but I have read enough to see several posts saying 'this is only boring/dull/not that hard.'

It angers me so much. That's great if it's like that for you. I think it is the case for lots of people and yes, if this is 'just' boring and a bit of grind then I understand why you're happy to keep living like this. It's unpleasant and difficult but it isn't going to kill you. But it is beyond unkind to judge others for not being able to cope much longer. And it baffles me to still be seeing posts like that, particularly from posters who post a lot of sensible stuff elsewhere on this site. Are you not talking to friends about their experiences of lockdown? Are you not reading some of the accounts on here of how badly people have struggled?

I look around and I see so much suffering at the moment. One friend lost her very adored husband (in his 40's) just before the first lockdown. So she'd had 2 years of isolating a lot to protect him as he went through chemo, she nursed him as he died, she lost friendships because people often abandon you when your partner is dying and then the world shut down. She's done fabulously well coping but a year of isolation is leaving her suicidal. This isn't 'dull' for her, it's putting her under severe pressure. She looks like a shadow of herself on Zoom. I have another friend who just lost her very beloved best friend - she's now extremely depressed because said friend spent a lot of time in the hospice totally alone up to her death because visitors were severely restricted. My friend could now do with being busy and being around other friends to help her cope with her loss - I can promise you she isn't sitting feeling a bit bored, quite simply she just needs people. You are going to judge her for saying she can't do this for much longer? That she'll give it a few weeks and then start meeting small groups?

I know people locally who've killed themselves too - one on her young son's 5th birthday. Again, if people are killing themselves over lockdown, it doesn't really fit that it's just a bit dull, does it? Humans don't take their lives because things are temporarily a bit dull.

If you are judging others for struggling and writing this off as just dull you are completely lacking in empathy. And to be doing this after months of people documenting on here what a horrendous impact this is having on them, then I have no idea what that says about you.

When all the over 50s have been vaccinated and their risk of hospitalisation and death is highly reduced, why do you think hospitals won't be able to cope?
This is what I don't understand. The vast proportion of hospitalisationa and deaths are in the elderly. They're being vaccinated.
Seriously, am I missing something?

scattered Precisely, well now you can be quite sure of your bed in ICU as the numbers have greatly reduced. In fact they are running a surplus here if anyone needs one. On the off chance now that you have a car crash you can be quite sure of a bed.
So there is no need whatsoever to continue with this lunacy right? Because you understand the damage it is doing to every other corner of society?

@StealthPolarBear

When all the over 50s have been vaccinated and their risk of hospitalisation and death is highly reduced, why do you think hospitals won't be able to cope? This is what I don't understand. The vast proportion of hospitalisationa and deaths are in the elderly. They're being vaccinated. Seriously, am I missing something?

Same from me. I am struggling to understand what our target is.

@StealthPolarBear

You endanger yourself and others every time you drive on the roads. Are you planning to stop driving?

No. But I stick to the rules of the road, like I’ll be sticking to the rules around covid. Would you be breaking the speed limit and refusing to wear your seatbelt every time you thought it was safe?

stealth Spot on. It is a relentless campaign. I am assuming many of the pro lockdowners have a very definite outcome in mind, and it ain't opening schools!

abc The 'target' is irrelevant as long as we keep the lockdown going for as long as possible...seemingly. No targets, no goals - no end.

@Mmn654123 yes they did. There was already three known strains circulating when we first went into lockdown last year. I was aware of that and I’m not a virologist so it was in the mainstream news.

I'd love to break the rules but I just can't bring myself to do it. I am missing my old life so much and as much as I love my family I can't wait to see other people. I'm bored of the same old same old! I am telling myself it won't be long, so be patient, keep drinking the gin and it will all be over by Easter! (I may be a little too optimistic but it's keeping me within the rules

Yes, thanks to my job I have no choice but to follow the rules. It's the responsible thing to do anyway, if I didn't I'd be putting my family and others at risk.

No. But I stick to the rules of the road, like I’ll be sticking to the rules around covid. Would you be breaking the speed limit and refusing to wear your seatbelt every time you thought it was safe?

This is such a pointless analogy. Wearing a seatbelt in a car literally causes no one any harm to do, neither does sticking to the speed limit. Barely makes a difference to a journey time.

The rules around Covid are causing considerable harms, particularly to mental health.

Yes, obviously. The virus isn't over just because we'd like it to be. And it'll take a lot longer if people just start ignoring rules.

I’m assuming many people who want people to follow the rules want schools to open.

We are so near the end we need to just keep going for that bit longer.
Ah yes, we've hear this again, and again, and again, and again.
"It's just for three weeks to flatten the curve."
"We can turn this virus around in twelve weeks."
"We have to squeeeee eeeeeeeze the brakes."
"Normal by September."
"Normalish by Christmas."
"It would be inhumane to cancel Christmas."
"Oh, a new variant has appeared, Christmas is cancelled."
"I hope to see significant normality by Easter."
"There is light at the end of the tunnel."

Really? Is it really real this time? Is a vaccine going to allow us to live again, instead of merely exist? Will be we seeing our families, from whom we have been separated for so long? We will be able to start salvaging what's left of our mental health? Will we have that great British summer that some merry man of Saint Boris's banged on about? Or on Good Friday, is our glorious leader going to put on his Easter Bunny costume, with a carrot in his paw, turn around and say "pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease be patient, we're nearly there, we can turn this virus around in twelve years..."

What do people actually mean when they say 'enough is enough'? Enough for what? We're bored now so we're going to stop bothering?

I won't be. I'll be off visiting my relatives, both 80+, who I haven't seen since February last year. We've managed to keep in touch via text, phone and even letter, but it doesn't replace real interaction. They've both had their first vaccine and that's good enough for all of us.

Yes I do happily accept a low(ish) level of risk, the issue is covid presented a high level of risk with high impact on both individuals and society itself.

Vaccines and suppression will ensure the situation is pushed back down to low risk.

But vaccines alone leave us all open to a repeat of 2020.

As for this: I didn’t say end lockdown right now, my op was saying from spring - spring is a three month season, covering March April May (meteorological spring anyway).

I agree we can start opening in Spring, and hopefully be very much open before summer has finished, in order to have low cases during autumn, and therefore avoid a lockdown in winter.

My family are 200 miles away, haven't seen them in well over a year as my dad was ill before lockdown. I'm happy to wait until I'm vaccinated as that doesn't seem so far off. I'd rather wait another six months and have a long life after that than take risks and maybe end up with long covid or possibly dead (I'm heading towards 50). I'd rather schools didn't open either, just get everyone vaccinated and then get things back to normal. The higher the number of cases the more chance there is for the virus to mutate so I'd rather stay home and get everyone vaccinated.

I am struggling to understand what our target is.
That's because Saint Boris and his merry men are deliberately making it vague, so they can keep moving the goalposts.

Once my parents are fully vaccinated and we are fully vaccinated I will driving the 30 miles to my parents' house and bringing my mum home for a week or so. We have room for her to stay and my dad has been her carer without any help or support for over a year now. It's enough.

Other than that though I'll be sticking to the rules - and to be honest that makes me still a bit nervous, but speaking to my dad on the phone he's just broken and needs a break. If we lived in the same town I'd have long since been helping.

@TheMerrickBoy

What do people actually mean when they say 'enough is enough'? Enough for what? We're bored now so we're going to stop bothering?

It’s not just ‘bored’ though, it’s ‘sad and lonely and desperately missing family members’.

If you want to persuade people to keep doing this after the most vulnerable are vaccinated you’re not going to get there by minimising what they’re dealing with. You’re just not.

Wow. You people really don't care. You talk about the mental health difficulties without any consideration for the mental health of your nurses and doctors and support workers.

What do you think the mental health impact has been for nurses who have nursed their colleagues? Or is it because you've called them heroes and clapped for them that they are somehow not allowed to have feelings or their own mental health problems?

Do you really believe that the health of your children's teachers should be put at risk? Would you still be demanding to send your children in if this was loose asbestos we were talking about?

Probably.

My parents are coming to mine for dinner this weekend, they had the vaccine over 3 weeks ago, they don’t go anywhere so if we give it to them they will not be spreading round the community, they are 80 this year, they could die of many things apart from coronvirus, surely we should be enjoying the time we have with them now we don’t have the worry of killing them if we see them?

I will continue to follow the rules. I've only seen my family once this year. But the south African variant had the potential to set back all the progress we've made.